Terry Etim

The Daily Recap is a collection of news and notes from around the web that will be posted at the end of each day. Bout signings, injury news and much more can all be found here.

— King of the Cage lightweight champion Bobby Green has been tapped to replace Lyle Beerbohm against former K-1 Hero's standout Gesias Cavalcante on the undercard of Strikeforce's "Fedor vs. Henderson" event on July 30. The reasoning behind Beerbohm's departure from the contest is currently unknown. Green enters the bout fresh off of a unanimous decision win over Dom O'Grady in April. [Strikeforce]

— Heavy hitting striker Lavar Johnson has been forced out of this weekend's Strikeforce Challengers 17 show with an undisclosed injury. Taking his place in a heavyweight bout against IFL veteran Devin Cole will reportedly be former collegiate football player Shawn Jordan, who recently posted a 1-1 mark under the Bellator banner. [MMA Junkie]

— Slick grappler and longtime veteran Dennis Hallman will reportedly make his official return to the UFC against John Howard at UFC 106, which will likely take place on November 21 in Las Vegas. Hallman has not fought in the UFC since dropping a unanimous decision to Jorge Rivera at UFC 55. Howard has earned a pair of split decisions over Tamdan McCrory and Chris Wilson in his two UFC bouts. [MMA Junkie]

— Dan Miller has reportedly been forced to withdraw from his scheduled UFC Fight Night 19 bout against “Ultimate Fighter” product C.B. Dollaway and will be replaced by UFC newcomer Jay Silva. Miller is said to be suffering from an undisclosed infection. Silva will make his UFC debut carrying a five-fight winning streak to start his professional career, including three wins by way of knockout. [MMA Madness]

Here are the full results from Saturday’s UFC 89 card, which saw Michael Bisping continue his rise up the middleweight ranks in winning an unanimous decision over fellow “Ultimate Fighter” alumnus Chris Leben in the show’s main event.

Sam Stout throws a left hook at Spencer Fisher. Photo property of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Fresh off signing a brand new four-fight contract extension with the UFC, popular Canadian lightweight Sam Stout will attempt to bounce back from a close split decision loss to Rich Clementi by taking on Terry Etim at UFC 89: Bisping vs Leben in October.

The news comes from a report by Mike Russell of The Fight Network, who learned of the fight through Shawn Tompkins’, the primary trainer for Stout at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. Stout was originally rumored to be fighting Paul Kelly at the event, however Kelly reportedly pulled out of the fight, citing concerns over his potential inability to make the lightweight limit.

Prior to his loss to Clementi in April, Stout pieced together two consecutive wins. After stopping Martin Grandmont with strikes in a successful defense of his TKO lightweight title last September, Stout went on to dominate UFC newcomer Per Eklund en route to an unanimous decision victory in January.

After scoring an impressive submission of Matt Grice in his UFC debut, Etim has fallen on hard times recently, losing his last two bouts inside the confines of the promotion. Just like Stout, he too lost his most recent bout to Clementi, an unanimous decision defeat suffered at UFC 84: Ill Will in May.

Despite competing this past weekend in a three-round war against Sam Stout, lightweight contender Rich Clementi has agreed to step in for an injured Rob Emerson and take on Terry Etim at UFC 84: Ill Will on May 24th.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship officially announced the change this afternoon on their website.

Clementi used superior striking skills to win a hard-fought split decision over Shawn Tompkins-trained Sam Stout at UFC 83: Serra vs. St. Pierre II this past Saturday. The win was Clementi’s fifth in a row and third consecutive victory inside the UFC.

Etim was originally slated to face Iowa native Jeremy Stephens at the event but Stephens was moved to a different event later this summer due to a minor legal situation concerning the Miletich Fighting Systems product. Etim is coming off of a unanimous decision loss to Gleison Tibau last September.

Two months after Zuffa, under the name PRIDE FC Worldwide, filed a lawsuit against former PRIDE parent company Dream Stage Entertainment claiming that they were defrauded during their purchase of PRIDE in March of last year, DSE and Nobuyuki Sakakibara have countered with a lawsuit of their own.

The news comes from Adam Swift of MMA Payout and Sherdog.com, who reports that the suit was filed in Las Vegas District Court on April 2nd.

More from Swift:

The suit filed by the former owners of Pride in federal court, under diversity jurisdiction, seeks damages for breach of the asset purchase and consulting agreements that were part of the Pride transaction, as well as fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

The complaint alleges that Pride was sold to the owners of the UFC with the promise that the Pride brand would be maintained as a “global top-level brand.” This promise allegedly resulted in the former owners’ decision to sell to the Fertittas despite more lucrative financial offers from other suitors.

DREAM Planning Events on U.S. Soil?

DREAM could potentially hold shows in the United States if the promotion eventually gains the popularity that PRIDE once had as well as a television deal according to Fight Entertainment Group figurehead Sadaharu Tanikawa.

FEG executive, Sadaharu Tanikawa stated that their hopes are to first establish a brand name in Japan before trying their hand in the United States. Tanikawa went on the record saying that it would take “maybe a year or two” for the new Dream promotion to gain the same strength among fans that the former Pride brand did before their demise.

With DREAM and HDNet already in talks about a possible deal, Tanikawa’s idea could become a reality sooner than later, especially if they could come to some sort of a deal with EliteXC or HDNet Fights to get some notable American names on the card.

Sakurai-Baron Set for Shooto Fight in May

Hayato “Mach” Sakurai will attempt to keep his current five-fight winning streak intact when he takes on fellow PRIDE veteran David Baron at a Shooto event in May according to a report from Sports Navi.

Sakurai stopped Hidetaka Monma with strikes at DREAM’s inaugural event last month. Baron, who is mostly known for his loss to Takanori Gomi at PRIDE Bushido 12 in the summer of 2006, has won his last three fights since then.

Update 2:30 PM ET: Our friends at MMA Junkie have learned that a possible “minor legal situation” may be preventing Stephens from fighting on the card but he expects to return to action this summer.

Sam Cupitt over at Five Ounces of Pain has noticed that Rob Emerson, a contestant on the fifth season of “The Ultimate Fighter”, has replaced Iowa native Jeremy Stephens in a scheduled lightweight bout against Terry Etim at UFC 84: Ill Will according to the UFC’s official website.

It was reported back in February that Etim and Stephens had signed bout agreements, making the fight good to go. No word as of yet on why Stephens was forced out of the bout.

As I’m sure regular visitors to this site have noticed, we haven’t had many updates since Saturday afternoon. A combination of David moving, others not being around, and myself coming down with the flu attributed to that. However fear not as we’re back in business. So here’s us playing catch-up once again, hopefully for the last time in a long time.

UFC 81 Generates Approximately 650,000 Buys

UFC 81: Breaking Point, which featured Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira defeating former two-time champion Tim Sylvia to win the interim UFC heavyweight belt and fellow former heavyweight title holder Frank Mir submitting one-time professional wrestler and WWE superstar Brock Lesnar, generated close to 650,000 PPV buys according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer.

In my interview at Jarry Park leading up to UFC 81, I mentioned that the UFC would likely be pleased with the amount of buys the event would generate, mostly because of the mainstream popularity of Lesnar from his various ventures in professional sports. It turns out UFC 81 will now rank as the third-highest-grossing event in UFC history.

Future Fights Galore!

A good amount of upcoming fights have been revealed over the past few days. Lightweights Jeremy Stephens and Terry Etim will meet at UFC 84 in May according to MMA Junkie, who confirmed that both fighters have agreed to sign bout agreements. Five Ounces of Pain has learned that Doug Evans has been released from the UFC and has signed on with EliteXC, who will pit him against Wilson Reis in his debut in April.

Gracie Fighter has announced that Nate Diaz has been added to UFC Fight Night 13 on April 2nd, making that an unheard of eleven total fights on that card. MMA Junkie says that he’s expected to face Kurt Pellegrino. Major props are in order to our friends at Fightlinker, who have reportedly successfully petitioned to have Spike TV increase the broadcast time of the event from two hours to three.

Nick Diaz will return to action against Muhsin Corbbrey according to Five Ounces of Pain. Don’t believe what “Babalu” says, Tito Ortiz-Ryoto Machida is still on according to Ed Soares, who serves as Machida’s manager. Chris Fries of TAGG Radio’s Lights Out Show confirmed that the fight was still a go with Soares earlier today.

More Randomness

Wanderlei Silva says that he would consider a drop down to middleweight in order to rematch Dan Henderson. Denis Kang tells The Fight Network that he will participate in DREAM’s middleweight grand prix in April. Gracie Mag has details about the first toxicology report released concerning Ryan Gracie’s death. Paul Buentello tells MMA Weekly that he wants Kimbo Slice.

The UFC apparently does not have a date set for the event yet. January 19th and the 26th are potential dates according to Mike Doyle and Mike Russell.

Stout (12-3-1) is coming off a TKO win over Martin Grandmont at TKO 31: Apocalypse in September. Stout’s last UFC fight was an unanimous decision loss to Spencer Fisher at UFC Fight Night 10, who he beat one year earlier at UFC 58.

Etim recently fell at the hands of Gleison Tibau at UFC 75, coming out on the wrong end of the an unanimous decision. Etim made his UFC debut against Matt Grice at UFC 70 where he submitted Grice with a guillotine choke in the first round.